Abstracts Posters SICOT-SOF meeting Gothenburg 2010 _2_

Poster
Topic: Arthroplasty - Knee
Abstract number: 26523
TIBIALIS ANTERIOR TENDON. DOES IT TRULY REPRESENT THE CENTRE OF
ANKLE? AN ANATOMICAL STUDY BASED ON 100 ANKLE MRI SCANS
Avadhoot KANTAK, Surendra PATNAIK, Praveen PANOSE
East Surrey Hospital, Redhill (UNITED KINGDOM)
The tibialis anterior tendon is useful landmark to locate ankle centre during total knee
replacement for verifying the perpendicularity of the tibial cut in coronal plane (when
extramedullary jigs are used). It represents the distal point on the mechanical axis. It
remains a reliable marker due to its predictable course which is well stabilized by the
extensor retinaculum. Despite its clinical use and widespread acceptance there is
little in the literature as a proof of its reliability. We present our study of 100 MRI
scans of the ankle joint to determine the position of tibialis anterior tendon in relation
to centre of the ankle joint in coronal plane. We examined sagital and transverse cuts
of the ankle. Our results indicate that the lateral edge of tibialis anterior tendon lies
on an average 1.72 mms (range 1.64 to 1.85 mms) medial to the centre of the ankle
joint when studied in the transverse section and it lies anterior to the ankle joint on
the paramedial sagital cut 3mm medial from the central section (first medial sagital
cut from the central section in a standard MRI protocol) in all 100 scans. We thus
conclude that a point about 1.7 to 3mm lateral to the tibialis anterior tendon
represents the centre of the ankle joint.
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